THE STORY BEHIND PETROL PRICES.

If you use the Internet, you probably received an email recently, which pointed out that YOU could use YOUR purchasing power to keep petrol prices low. I still believe it is a hoax, despite the reassurances, but the key problem is its underlying viewpoint.

This viewpoint demands cheap petrol without thinking of the consequences each litre of petrol is costing us.

It costs us water and energy, just to refine it and transport it around.

It costs the future from the green house gas we create by burning it.

It costs people their future by the wars waged to ensure its supply.

And the environment suffers from the effects of oil spills from pipelines, tankers and storage tanks.

By demanding low petrol prices we...

• condone the use of gas-guzzling V8s and 4WDs, pumping out twice as much green house emissions per kilometre as a compact 4 cylinder;
• encourage people to drive to work by themselves rather than using public transport (where it exists);
• discard the possibility of good public transport eventuating for yet another decade or two; and
• endorse the war on Iraq and Afghanistan and all the other Middle Eastern interference.

So - who really wants us to have cheap fuel? Think of what THEY get by getting us to use more.

(Source: Tom Alletson's letter in Gecko reNews June 2005).